Wrenthrush Zeledonia coronata Scientific name definitions

The unique member of the genus Zeledonia is a most remarkable bird—sufficiently so to have been afforded its own family—and is surely one of the most charismatic in all of Central America. Plump and characteristically short tailed, it forages mostly on the ground, albeit in dense cover, somewhat in the manner of a thrush or an antpitta, often within bamboo. It is endemic to a relatively small area, from northern Costa Rica to west-central Panama, where the species chiefly occupies areas above 1,500 m, and it locally reaches as high as the treeline. The overall appearance is of a very dark bird, given the dark olive upperparts and the slate-gray underparts, but there is an orange-rufous central crown stripe, which is bordered with black, and this ‘sets the seal’ on a most special bird.